One More Mile

Please find below my writing for this week’s women’s ministry newsletter at Riverbend Church, dated Monday April 13.

This past week we learned that Austin’s shelter-in-place order was extended by another month, and I felt like my lifeboat sprung a new leak.  My thoughts scrambled—scooping water, passing buckets—trying to figure out how to keep this thing afloat. 

I was reminded of a military endurance test my dad once described, in which instructors took trainees out for a one-mile run.  Near the end of that first mile the leaders would demand “one more mile.”  Toward the end of that second mile, they would call for one more.  On and on this would go for ten miles, twelve miles, the recruits believing each was their last.  Not knowing the total distance at the start, even the long-distance runners in the group would quit early on, unable to handle the mental strain of this moving target.  

Then there was Florence Chadwick, a woman who in 1952 attempted to swim the twenty-six mile channel between San Diego and Catalina Island.  Fifteen hours in, a thick fog fell over the bay.  Unable to see the shore and with doubt creeping into her mind, she swam one more hour before finally giving up and climbing into her rescue boat.  It was only then she learned she’d quit just one mile short of the shoreline.

Perspective is everything.  Proverbs 13:12 says “hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”  It’s hard to love manna if our minds are set on the flavors of Egypt, and it’s hard to feel courageous when we’re more focused on the size of our enemies than on the size of our God.  But the Bible encourages us:  

“Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross.”  (Hebrews 12:1-2).

And again: “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.  This hope will not disappoint us…” (Romans 5:2-5).         

    The next time the military instructors announced a “one mile run,” the troops settled in for a marathon.  And on her second attempt, even when the same dense fog set in, Florence Chadwick succeeded, reporting that she kept a vision of the shoreline in her mind the whole way.  As for us, Jesus provides the only true perspective, the Hope that doesn’t disappoint, reminding us that it really isn’t about changing our circumstances, but about changing our hearts—be it one day, or one month, at a time.